So about Fable

 

With a new Fable something on the way, (Remake, Reboot or just straight sequel- can't be sure on which one right now) I and many others have really had the franchise on the mind as everyone tries to come to terms with what this franchise even was to begin with- because it really doesn't seem like anyone is sure. It has been so very long since a proper Fable game has come out and an entire couple of generations have flown by in the interim. A lot of the target audience of these games have moved on entirely and they're now presumably batting for a whole new group of players right off the bat- but we won't be able to recognise those attempts unless we categorise what Fable is and more importantly- what it isn't. Because with that latter comes undue expectations that aren't really fair on the game.

Fable is an RPG franchise. But not really RPGs like any other franchise currently does it. They were mostly child-focused, with variously exaggerated adult winks, high fantasy RPGs that prided themselves on providing a sandbox. But that doesn't mean they were Sandbox RPGs, mind you! Perish the thought! They were robust and largely linear affairs- or rather bi-linear, I suppose? They championed purposefully opaque views on morality and heroism and created impressively creative black-and-white adventures around those parameters. They also boasted themselves as bastions of player expression despite never one featuring a character creator. (They just had so many character customisation options everyone felt like they were making someone unique.)   

But Fable didn't always stay as just that. As the games went on and the Fable brand grew the games started to shed their RPG routes and developed into a bit more of a general action adventure beat-em-up with basic moral compunctions chucked in for good measure. At least, in the rare times that they were even still traditional games! I don't mean to speak ill of the later games given that my introduction to the franchise was Fable 3 which I still hold some nostalgia for in my heart, but there's no hiding from the truth that Fable became a bit too much of a brand as it went on. Was the Horse VR game really deserving of the Fable name? Not really. What about the short-lived Asymmetrical multiplayer game? The 'player's playground' which was so integral to the franchise's identity was kind of lost.

I think as the franchise became more polished and outwardly approachable, it's innards were slowly gutted to a point where series fans became a bit disillusioned. Although to some degree I do think the streamlining improved the experience- there's no deluding yourself into believing that the original Fable isn't a bit of a convoluted mess in user experience, questing, combat, levelling- just about everything. It's the spirit of what Fable was that keeps it glued together and for better or for worse, I think that spirit was alive all the way up until Fable 3 dropped and Peter 'liar liar pants on fire' Molyneux flew the Lionhead coup. Speaking of- 'RIP Lionhead'- what a shame. Miss those guys and girls.

As Fable exists now, the franchise is not where it was left. In the absence of any serious contemporaries, Fable has become the great fantasy hope of the Xbox world, promising to bring back all those fond memories of sandbox escapism integral to this genre- even if quite a chunk of those memories weren't actually originated from Fable itself. People want Fable to be this grand fantastical adventure that will seamlessly immerse you in an otherworldly space, imbue you with all the skills to be some laudable attractive badass and thrill you throughout- most of which doesn't gell with this franchise at all. People genuinely get in their feelings about how 'unattractive' the female protagonist is like every other Fable character over the years have been virtues of beauty. The franchise's art style has been 'comic mis-proportions' since it started; what Fable have you been playing?

But lacking an Elder Scrolls, Fable has kind of had to serve as the interim Bethesda title whilst they fumble about trying to make Starfield feel like a better all around game- which has led to Fable adopting largely unrealistic expectations. Following the trajectory of Fables past- this game should only ever be a pretty decent AA game at best- honestly the production value we've seen so far largely diverges from the Fable we've known up until now- which is what leaves me to wonder whether or not there's any connective tissue from the series we know to the one we're seeing today. Will Microsoft even let this game be anything less than the big budget world simulation Elder Scrolls companion game it desperately wants to sell?

Now just because all of that is what Fable was, that doesn't mean it is what the franchise must always forever be. In fact, given the renewed spotlight-style focus that Fable is getting from Microsoft you'd almost be justified in saying they're expected to go above and beyond and create a 'premium product' to compete with the likes of Playstation's flagships- your Last of Us and God of War's. I don't believe that Fable can rise to such a task retaining it's playful innocence, no they'll need to shift in a manner that better suits the style. More cinema, less whimsy. And will that detract away from the heart of the franchise as it was? Perhaps- but sometimes it isn't a crime to change things up a little bit.

Take Perfect Dark for example, adapting a rather retro boomer-shooter into a pristine looking Immersive Sim- that's the kind of glow up that the Fable franchise could be looking at! We could get a narrower but cleaner RPG style adventure game than any Elder Scrolls game could realistically pull off. Fable could become an RPG franchise of tailor-made adventure pieces, rather than padding the waters between open world and garden plot exploration like they've done previously. And honestly, maybe the franchise would be better off leaning into it's own successes like this. Or maybe it'll just be another big open world RPG chucking it's two cents into one of the most competitive genres in the market- see how that works out for them...